August 9th

August 9^th:  About 6:30 a.m., as we went out for our walk, we were greeted in the lobby by a group of members who had arrived from Potosi.

Part of the group from Potosi.

The rest of the group from Potosi.

Then while we were walking around the temple we saw a bus arrive with another group from Santa Cruz. 

The bus arriving from Santa Cruz.

The group from Santa Cruz.

More of the group from Santa Cruz.

We are always amazed at the number of people who are not only willing, but excited about an 8 or 12 or even 24 hour bus ride to come to the temple.  Believe me, an 8 hours bus ride down here is not easy or fun.  But I guess if you have in mind what Pres. Monson said in April conference in 2011, you can understand why they do it.  “Why are so many willing to give so much in order to receive the blessings of the temple? Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings. There are never too many miles to travel, too many obstacles to overcome, or too much discomfort to endure. They understand that the saving ordinances received in the temple that permit us to someday return to our Heavenly Father in an eternal family relationship and to be endowed with blessings and power from on high are worth every sacrifice and every effort.”  President Monson.

August 10^th:  All those people who came yesterday were joined by another group and we were very busy this morning with 8 new endowments and 4 sealings.  After our shift I worked on talks.  I will be giving 3 this weekend at a stake conference in Los Alamos here in Cochabamba.

August 11^th:  We switched with the Diazs so that we would be off this afternoon so that I could go with Pres. Caryk to the 4pm priesthood leadership meeting.  So we were up and at the temple at 6:15am and we had a full session at 7am with 55 people on it and another 22 on a session at 7:30am.  We then were kept busy with more sealings and new endowments.  We got home and had a quick lunch and I left with Pres. Crayk for the conference at 3:15pm.  I really didn’t know what to expect, but at the start of the meeting the bishoprics and the young men’s presidencies and the 2 counselors in the stake presidency and I went to one room and the rest stayed with the stake president and Pres. Crayk in the chapel.  Our meeting was on preparing young men for missions and when the counselor was done he said, “What do you have for us Pres. Norman?”  So I got up and spoke for about 10 minutes on some of the things I thought were important and the role of the temple in preparing young men to be missionaries.  We then went back to the chapel and had a group meeting and I spoke again for about 15 minutes on the importance of temple attendance. Pres. Crayk had made arraignments for someone from the temple to drive mom out to the adult session.  We had a doughnut and a soft drink between the priesthood leadership meeting and the adult meeting.  During the adult meeting I spoke for about 25 minutes on what one can do to have a better experience in the temple.  We went and had chicken on the way home and got home about 10:00pm.

August 12^th:  We left at 9:15am to go back to the Los Alamos stake conference.  Mom got to bear her testimony and I spoke for about 25 minutes on Sacrifice.  I need some new talks.  But 4 talks in 2 days is a new record for me.  We had Pres. Crayk for dinner and then packed for our trip that starts on Monday.